A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE

THE POWERFUL NEW NOVEL FROM THE PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING AND BOOKER-SHORTLISTED AUTHOR OF THE OVERSTORY AND BEWILDERMENT

‘Ascends to the plane of true, indisputable greatness' OBSERVER
'An ambitious, rapturous epic' GUARDIAN
‘Magisterial, moving and thought-provoking … a beautiful love letter to our oceans’ NEW SCIENTIST

Rafi and Todd are two polar opposites at an elite high school. As adults, Rafi gets lost in literature, while Todd’s enters the world of AI. Elsewhere, Evie sinks to the bottom of a swimming pool strapped to one of the world’s first aqualungs; Ina grows up in naval bases across the Pacific with art as her only home.

All of these people meet on the history-scarred island of Makatea in French Polynesia, marked for humanity’s next great adventure.

Set in the world’s largest ocean, Playground interweaves profound themes of technology and the environment, and a deep exploration of our shared humanity.

'Is there anything Richard Powers cannot write? The world here is complete, seductive, and promising. The writing feels like the ocean. Vast, mysterious, deep and live' PERCIVAL EVERETT

'Brilliant, captivating and important' ANDREA WULF

'An extraordinarily immersive journey through lives linked in mysterious ways - gripping, alarming and uplifting' EMMA DONOGHUE

Praise for Richard Powers:

'Powers has extraordinary gifts as a writer' GUARDIAN
'Impressively precise in its scientific conjectures, Bewilderment is no less rich or wise in its emotionality' OBSERVER
'He composes some of the most beautiful sentences I've ever read. I'm in awe of his talent' OPRAH WINFREY
'It is impossible to deny the importance of Powers's message' SUNDAY TIMES
'Refreshing, original and moving' EVENING STANDARD

"This ambitious, rapturous Booker-longlisted epic explores life underwater, generative AI, climate crisis and the power of play" - Guardian

"Playground ... isn't merely a great American novel, but a magnificent one" - i Newspaper

"Along with its environmental warnings, the book carries an intriguing look at the ways people and animals play, as in the boys’ competitive chess, the antics of manta rays, the allure of computer games, and what a meta-minded author might do with his readers. An engaging, eloquent message for this fragile planet." - Kirkus starred review

"Magisterial, moving and thought-provoking ... a beautiful love letter to our oceans" - New Scientist

"A work of imaginative skill that opens doors into an undersea future where human exceptionalism isn't taken for granted, and finds hope where other writers, and thinkers, would dwell in despair" - The Daily Telegraph

"A compelling, eloquent love letter to what [Powers] calls this "fading" planet ... There is a lot going on in Playground, with reflections on power, nature and friendship in a book with well-drawn protagonists and graceful prose. It is a story that rewards a slow read for full immersement" - Independent

"Powerful, mesmerically beautiful" - Mail on Sunday